How Soundin’ Canaan Remixed Its Design, Launch, and Website
Sponsored by Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Recorded on 10/29/2025
Posted in The Authority File
Episode 447
This week we conclude our four-part series with Paul db Watkins, author of Soundin’ Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship, by reflecting on the power of remixing. Digging into the book’s unique design elements, Paul explains that he wanted readers to “feel a little bit like a kind of DJ themselves” through an active, auditory reading experience. We also talk about Paul’s website for the book, which offers resources like relevant poems, lectures, discussion questions, and audio files. In addition, Paul shares how he aimed to disrupt traditional scholarly communication practices by holding poetry readings, open mics, and interviews at the book’s launch events to underscore the title’s multimedia elements. Last, Paul reflects on the willingness (or lack thereof) of major musical acts to speak about political or social issues. Though perhaps not a solution to today’s ongoing crises, Paul underscores that poetry and music can act as an “antidote to apathy…[and] a catalyst for change.”
About the guest:
Paul db Watkins
Professor of English
Vancouver Island University
Paul db Watkins is a Professor of English at Vancouver Island University. He is also a research team member with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI). He has published widely on multiculturalism, hip-hop, Canadian poetry, jazz, DJ culture, and improvisation. Under his DJ alias, DJ Techné, he has completed several DJ projects that explore the spaces between poetry, hip-hop, and jazz.
Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:
- Soundin’ Canaan Explores How Aesthetic and Rhetoric Intertwine in Black Canadian Poetry
- How Decentering and the “DJ Methodology” Enhanced the Writing Process of Soundin’ Canaan
- Examining Sonic Citizenship, Remixing, and Multiculturalism in Soundin’ Canaan
Check out our previous series with Wilfrid Laurier University Press:
– What the Implied Reader of Refugee Comics Tells Us about the Genre and Citizenship
– Talking Infrastructure, Education, and Canada and the Blackface Atlantic
– Podcasting in Academia: A critical look at its potential and discussing a new book, Podcast Studies
– Exploring Ecologies in Practice and Environmental Humanities
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